A Picture is Worth a Thousands Words...

Today's Top 5 Tuesday features a topic near and dear to most lovers of genre fiction, literary adaptations.  I love seeing my favorite books come to life with gorgeous characters and settings.  I am sometimes amazed, often times perplexed as to how the director/writers vision of the work matches up with the original.  What follows is a list of my top 5 favorite literary adaptations and if you notice that the BBC is well represented on the list, well, what can I say?  Obviously, those Brits know their way around this whole adaptation business.

Pride and Prejudice - BBC- 1995
The best of the best!  Firth and Ehle and an amazing screenplay create this excellent version of Jane Austen's classic!  Adaptations do not get better than this.

Jane Eyre - BBC - 1983
Of the over 25 film and television versions of Jane Eyre that I have experienced, this is the definitive version.  Yes, the production's look is a bit dated, but the length allowed for a full exploration of Charlotte Bronte's classic text.  And while many still think that Timothy Dalton was too attractive to be Rochester, he was masterful in the role, so I graciously overlooked his hotness.  

Little Dorrit - BBC- 2008/2009
Another amazing Andrew Davies success!  Davies script, along with outstanding performances from Matthew MacFayden, Claire Foy and Tom Courtenay, made Dicken's sprawling tale accessible, romantic and incredibly moving.

North and South - BBC- 2004
Richard Armitage as Thornton.  What?  Isn't that enough?

The Uninvited -Paramount - 1944
This 1944 Paramount production based on Dorothy Macardle's fantastic haunted house novel, breaks the BBC's stranglehold on my top 5.  The film features excellent performances by Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey along with a script that stays incredibly faithful to the original.  This film manages to be simultaneously charming and scary as hell.  If you haven't had the pleasure, I recommend renting it immediately.

Pride and Prejudice (Restored Edition)
Jane Eyre (BBC, 1983)
Little Dorrit
North & South
The Uninvited (1944)